City denies release of performance records on Valley Line LRT construction

A city decision to deny access to performance records for the Valley Line LRT construction is raising questions about the transparency of public-private partnerships.

The contract with TransEd to build and run the new LRT line between downtown and Mill Woods specifically says the contractor is deemed to be acting under provincial freedom of information legislation.

But when Postmedia applied under freedom of information legislation for a record of “non-conformance events” — the city’s way of tracking construction issues along the way — City of Edmonton officials ruled this information could not be released.

It’s release would be “harmful to business interests of a third party.”

That doesn’t make sense to Ken Rubin, who makes his living filing freedom of information requests on behalf of organizations across the country. He also writes a column for the political newspaper the Hill Times.

“That’s what corporations will try to intimidate the city to say,” said Rubin, who recently won access in a similar case in Ontario. “There’s an overriding public interest (to be transparent). You need the confidence of the people who are riding the system that it’s going to be constructed well and without safety issues.

“It’s involving public funds, even if it’s done with the private sector.”

Postmedia is appealing the city’s decision to the provincial Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The Valley Line is the City of Edmonton’s largest P3 project to date, and the biggest single infrastructure project in its history. City officials are now in the process of determining how to get the second, western half of the line built. It’s possible the west extension will also be built as a private-public partnership.

The project has fallen behind schedule — it was at 80 per cent adherence or roughly one year behind in the June quarterly update, mostly because of an unexpected mass of concrete found during the river crossing construction. But TransEd officials say they can still open on time by re-organizing work — it’s due to submit a new schedule to city officials by mid September.

Most issues identified through a non-conformance report will be corrected and pose no safety issue, Rubin said. But if there are many reports, it could signify a larger problem. Sharing quarterly or semi-annual updates with the public, as TransEd does in Edmonton, is not the same as giving access to the official reports, he added, because being accountable means letting citizens verify what’s being said.

Working with the Ottawa Citizen, Rubin won access in June to non-conformance reports from Phase 1 of Ottawa’s new LRT line, including any associated with a major sinkhole on Rideau Street. The Ontario commissioner allowed the city to withhold only the attachments to the reports, which contained the fine detail.

Ward 11 Coun. Mike Nickel said Valley Line LRT non-conformance reports are now being shared with him quarterly and, so far, he’s satisfied none will have significant consequences.

“A lot of it is small stuff, but the biggest thing is they are behind schedule,” he said.

He’s concerned about transparency because the city is now starting to shape the contract for the west LRT construction. He hopes the city has enough time to learn from the southeast leg before signing on to any more work in the west end.

That includes ensuring transparency. “I’ve been pushing the department to release as much information as possible because it’s our first P3.”

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